Category: growing up in the Lord

Thirteen years ago, on June 28, 2012, my friend Amy Peterson posted, “If you truly believe that God is in control and that He has not left the room: PLEASE stop using the following phrase about today’s weather/political/spiritual/financial climate, ‘I am scared about what is going on.’ You have...

Throughout history, good people, even faithful Christians, have found themselves on every side of every conflict or debate. Sometimes tensions run deep, even between family members, friends, and within the church. In addition to escalating political and global events, society grapples with issues of identity and belonging. Often, the...

For the past several years, my son has spent his birthday away at camp.  We often celebrate before he leaves or when he returns. For birthdays at camp, the female counselors gather around the male campers and sing Happy Birthday to various other tunes (this year it was the...

The memories feature on Facebook occasionally contains a past writing that did not make it to the blog. I often take those memories and share them with new insight or updated illustrations and applications. Today, one crossed my feed that doesn’t need changing but absolutely needs sharing:   On...

Teaching—whether in a formal school setting, at home, or in Bible class—is a source of great joy in my life. While I don’t have experience in a traditional classroom beyond my own time as a student, I have over 17 years of experience teaching in the home and Bible...

When we lived and worshiped in Germany, a twenty-something pregnant woman walked into the church building. People often came into our building, since our congregation met in the middle of downtown. Even parts of her story were not unusual. The baby’s father had recently deployed to Afghanistan. She was...

Can you believe we’re in the last month of the year already? As such, it seems only natural to reflect. I’ve chosen a “word of the year” over multiple New Year’s Resolutions for many years. My word focus often goes in a different direction than I planned. As a...

Many years ago, I heard a song by Hallal, called “Broken Things.” The song begins with the plight of the farmer, pushing the plow and fighting the elements. The farmer is weary from the work. The chorus says, “Oh Lord who uses, broken things/ Who through broken clouds, gives...

Each fall, we meet other homeschoolers at a local corn maze. The temperature in October in West Texas ranges from already bitterly cold with biting wind to still blazing hot with not even a breeze. No matter the weather, we set out to have a good time. We go...

Cleaning out clutter is about more than “stuff.” So often, we don’t realize how much stuff is accumulating until we decide to clean. The second half of May tends to be when I tackle the piles of stuff because we have a break in activities for a few weeks....